page_title: Variation (music)
section_title: Other examples
hierarchical_section_title: Variation (music) / Variation techniques / Other examples
caption_attribution_description: English: Debussy Reflets dans l'Eau, varied recapitulation of the opening
context_page_description: In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.
context_section_description: Variation techniques are frequently used within pieces that are not themselves in the form of theme and variations.  For example, when the opening two-bar phrase of Chopin's Nocturne in F minor returns later in the piece, it is instantly repeated as an elegant melodic re-working:
  Debussy's piano piece "Reflets dans l’Eau" (1905) opens with a sequence of chords:
   
   These chords open out into arpeggios when they return later in the piece:
  Follow this link for a complete performance of “Reflets dans l’Eau”.
  Sometimes melodic variation occurs simultaneously with the original. In Beethoven's "Waldstein" piano sonata, the main second-subject theme of the opening movement, which is in sonata form, is heard in the pianist's left hand, while the right hand plays a decorated version. (See also heterophony.)
  
  While most variations tend to elaborate on the given theme or idea, there are exceptions. In 1819, Anton Diabelli commissioned Viennese composers to create variations on a waltz that he had composed:
  Beethoven contributed a mighty set of 33 variations on this theme.  The thirteenth of these stands out in its seemingly wilful eccentricity and determination to reduce the given material to its bare bones:
  Wilfrid Mellers describes this variation as "comically disruptive... The original tonal sequence is telescoped, the two-bar sequences being absorbed into the silences."
caption: Debussy Reflets dans l'Eau, varied recapitulation of the opening
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